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PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



LEGISLATURE 



OF THE 



Commo7iwealth of Massachusetts^ 



hi the Year of our Lord 



1810. 

0^ 



^ < .- 



*^ Rxtract of a Sfieech of His Excellency the Governor^ 
^ delivered to the Senate and House of Rejirese7itaticesy 
^ the 25th January^ 1810. 

^ « ^^T the last session we had the liappiness of mutual 
^^ congratulation on the prospect of amicabie adjustment 
of our national diflPerenccs with one of the great belli- 
gerents of Europe, and of a revival of our commerce, so 
essential to the prosperity of this Commonwealth. 
Subsequent events show our relation to the powers at 
war to be in a most critical and alarming state. 

" Although our commercictl and foreign concerns are 
confided to the government of the union, yet so deeply 
involved are we in every thing which regards them, 
that the exercise of all constitutional means, either to 
prevent the calamities that threaten us, or to prepare to 
meet them, in a becoming manner, is a duty too impe- 
rative to be neglected. Having done all in our power, 
to these ends, we may humbly rely on that Divine Pro- 
vidence which has so singularly interposed to relieve 
our country from impending danger, to ail human eyes, 
inevitable and overwhelming. It would be superfluous 
in me, again to recommend candour and prudence in 
discussion, always necessary to a wise and happy result. 
Every one must see that in the present portentous cri- 
sis of our aftairs, these qualities, with a disinterested 
elevation above all party spirit, are indispensable to the 
safety of our dearests rights and best interests. 

" The principles which I took the liberty of submit- 
ting to your notice the last session, and of avowing as the 
rule of my own conduct, have invariably guided the 



( * ) 

Executive in the performance of all its duties ; and 
while I have the firmest conviction that they are just in 
themselves, and that a strict adherence to them in ull 
who administer the government is necessary to pre- 
serve the rights of the people, and the constitution un- 
der which we act, I can entertain no doubt of their in- 
fluence on all your deliberations ; and that the result of 
your labour will advai^ce the prosperity of the citizen^ 
and secure the dignity of the Commonwealth. 

" CHRISTOPHER GORE." 



Extract of the Answer of the Senate to the Governor's 
Speech. 
" The people of this Commonwealth, believing it to 
be the indispensable duty of the States to contribute to 
the exigencies of the union, have been accustomed to 
consider it as a reciprocal duty of the general govern- 
ment to provide for the common defence. And knowing 
that the United States contain the most ample naval and 
military resources ; and considering the imminent dan- 
gers which threaten, we cannot but express our deepest 
concern that our extensive frontiers are so defenceless, 
and that our naval force is so utterly incompetent to the 
purposes of national security, and unbecoming the just 
claims and the dignity of our country. In this alarming 
situation of our public affairs, our immediate reliance 
must be had on the militia of the State, and we assure 
your Excellency, that ' to render this, to say the least, 
cur first resource for defence as efficient as possible,' we 
consider to be ^7iot merely the dictate of prudence, but 
the imperious call of a necessity imposed by circnmstancts 
over which we have no control.'' 



( 5 ) 

"The policy of the United States was peace. To 
preserve this blessing, it became necessary not only to 
defend the rights of neutrality, but to respect the rights 
of belligerents. The Federal administration did not 
originally rest satisfied with the appeals to the reason 
only of the great powers at war, but made adequate 
provision, and manifested a determination to maintain 
the rights of their country by the sword. Hence re- 
sulted a state of national glory, and of unexampled 
prosperity. 

" It would unquestionably be the policy of a neutral 
nation to submit to the inconveniencies necessarily in- 
cident to collisions between belligerents and neutral 
rights ; but a neutral, possessing the means of resist- 
ance, and yet acquiescing in such aggressions of the 
one party to the war, as would justify measures of reta- 
liation by the other, must be considered as having aban- 
doned or forfeited its neutral position and privileges. 
The people of this state will support, with their accus- 
tomed energy and promptitude, the measures necessary 
to maintain an honest neutrality ; even if they should 
involve a just but necessary war; but such a war 

ONIT WILL have TKEIR ENCOURAGEMENT. 

« While we concur with your Excellency in opinion 
that in the <■ perilous state of our foreign relations it 
ivould be the extreme of delusion to consider ivar as im- 
probable^* we are obliged frankly to declare our appre- 
hension that this war will ine\itubly lead to an alliance 
which would be the presage of destruction; that this 
war is menaced against a nation which opposes the only 
barri-ir to the necessity of an immediate conflict with 
the tremendous power and despotism of France which 
has already overwhelmed the liberties of the old world. 

" And when it shall appear that the administration gf 
A 2 



( 6 ) 

the general government pursue a policy towards the 
great belligerent powers, which seems to conceal and 
palliate the wrongs and the insults of the one, and to 
magnify the injuries and discolour the views of the 
other — to submit to the cruel aggressions of the one, 
committed in contempt and violation both of Treaty and 
the Public Law; and to refuse to accept from the other 
parts, reparation for unauthorised injury, and proffers 
of adjustment that might be reasonable and just,— . 

" The people of this Commonwealth will consider it 
' a duty too imperative to be neglected to exercise all con- 
stitutional means^ either to prevent impending calamities^ 
or to prepare to meet them in a beco7ning mayiner.^'* 



Extract of the Answer of the House of Representatives 
to the Governor*s Speech. 
" The people of this Commonwealth are most deeply 
concerned in the change which has taken place in our 
national affairs since the last session of this legislature. 
If the United States should be involved in war, it is 
obvious, that not only the sacrifices and priA-ations occa- 
sioned by it, would fall most heavily on the Commercial 
States ; but also the resources to maintain such a war 
must be drawn principally from them. But however 
great might be the exertions and sacrifices required in 
a just and necessary war, we confidently trust that the 
people of this Commonwealth would always cheerfully 
sustain them; and forgetting all party distinctions and 
local interests, would cordially unite to maintain the 
rights and vindicate the honour of the nation. In such 
a state of things the administration will be encouraged 
5ind strengthened by that approbation of their measures 



( 7 ) 

which every patriotic citizen will readily bestow. But 
when on the other hand the people are alarmed by the 
prospect of a war, the justice and necessity of which 
they do not clearly perceive, it is their solemn duty, as 
well as right, to express these opinions frankly und un- 
equivocally. With these impressions the House of Re- 
presentatives cannot refrain from declaring their deep 
anxiety and concern at the late rupture of the negocia- 
tion with tlie minister of one of the belligerent nations. 
At the termination of even a prosperous war, we shall 
still have the present differences to be compromised 
and settled by amicable negociation ; and it cannot be 
presumed that after a long and sanguinaiy conflict, 
either party will enter on the discussion with feelings 
more conciliatory than those which now actuate them. 
When therefore all that can be reasonably expected 
from successful war, seemed to have been attainable by 
treuty ; at the moment when the minister referred to 
was producing full powers from his Government, to 
settle amicably and permanently all the controversies 
between the two countries, it is in a high degree dis- 
tressing to see the negociation broken off, for causes 
which we are unable to comprehend. 

"We are far from imputing to our national rulers any 
intention or desire to involve us in war ; but the conse- 
quences of this rupture may not be under their control, 
and may lead unhappily to that calamitous issue. The 
subsequent acts and measures of the government are 
not calculated to quiet these apprehensions, nor do they 
appear to us to promise a restoration of friendly inter- 
course. Invidious restrictions on the trade of foreign 
nations with whom we are commercially connected, na- 
turally tend to produce retaliation on their part ; and 
every act, even of self-defence, which they may adopt, 



( 8 ) 

win in this species of warfare, be considered as a new 
outrage, and be represented as a new source of com- 
plaint. Thus although neither party may intend to pro- 
voke hostilities, and though there is confessedly no suf- 
ficient cause for war at present ; yet in such a state of 
mutual irritation and accumulated collisions, this seems 
to be the inevitable result. In contemplating this 
gloomy prospect, it adds greatly to our alarm and appre- 
hension to consider that such a war v/ould be waged 
against the nation which forms the only remaining bar- 
rier against the universal domination of a single power; 
and still more that it would probably entangle us in an 
alliance with that power whose friendship has proved 
fatal to the independence of so many Republics and 
States. 

" The House of Representatives will readily concur 
in the exercise of all constitutional means to prevent 
the calamities which we have so much cause to appre- 
hend, or to prepare to meet them in a becoming man- 
ner. In their deliberations on this subject, and on the 
other important concerns embi-aced in your Excellen- 
cy's Communication, they will constantly keep in view 
that candour and prudence, and that disinterested eleva- 
tion above all party spirit, which your Excellency justly 
observes are indispensable in this portentous crisis of 
our affairs, to the safety of our dearest rights and best 
interests. 



( 9 ) 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 

The Committee of both Houses^ afifiointed to consider 
and report on the expediency of expressing the sense 
of the Legislature on the present alarming state of 
our Foreign Relations.^ and on the causes nvhich have 
produced it ; and whether any ^ and if any ^ what mea- 
sures may be adopted to prevent the evils of impend' 
ing war — have attended to the duties of their ap* 
pointment — and find on examination^ 

That by the Message of the President of the United 
States to Congress at the opening of the present ses* 
sion, and the documents therewith transmitted, it ap- 
pears that a Minister deputed by the government of 
Great-Britain to this country, with full powers to ne- 
gociate and conclude an accommodation of all contro- 
versies subsisting between the two nations, after be- 
ing accredited and having entered upon the object of 
his mission, was suddenly informed by the American 
Minister, that no further communication would be re- 
ceived from him, in consequence of an alleged of- 
fence in the language used in some part of his cor- 
respondence. This event, viewed in connection with 
the resolutions of Congress, and the resentment dis- 
covered, and measures proposed by the friends of the 
administration, have materially changed the posture 
of our relations with Great-Britain, since the last 
meeting of this Legislature; and in lieu of the pros- 
pect of peace and amity, which we then hailed as so 
auspicious to our national prosperity, we discern a 
policy whose tendency is to produce an open rupture 
\vith that nation. A v/ar with Great'Britaiyi^ in the 



( 10 ) 

present state of Eurofie^ and under the existing cir- 
cumstances of our country, would be, in the estima- 
tion of your Committee, the greatest calamity that 
could befal the United States^ short of the loss of their 
liberties and independence ; and would, in its conse- 
quences, endanger these. A conviction of this truth, 
would justify any member of the confederacy, by whom 
it should be felt, in the expression of its disapproba- 
tion, and its fears, even if no measures were adopted 
by other States calculated to support the administra- 
tion in its hostile attitude. But as several of the State 
Legislatures, partaking of the sensibility of the Na- 
tional Executive, have approved of the rejection of 
the British Minister, in a tone which may be deemed 
to disclose a spirit ripe for open hostility with his na- 
tion, it is, in our opinion, the duty of this Legislature 
to attempt to allay these hostile propensities, and, if 
possible, to prevent a ruinous and unnecessary war, 
by such an exposition of their sentiments upon the 
present crisis, as may demonstrate the extreme reluc- 
tance with which the people of this Commonwealth 
would find themselves compelled to engage in such a 
war. 

Aware of the danger and inconvenience of collisions 
between the measures of the National and State Go- 
vernments, and persuaded that harmony and mutual 
confidence constitute the basis of the power of con- 
federate States, your Committee have examined the 
dcouments accompanying the Presidential Message, 
with a sincere disposition to discover a sufficient jus- 
tification for the rupture of a negociation so deeply 
affecting the interests of the nation. The cause al- 
leged is, that the British Minister in his correspon- 
dence persisted in using terms which implied that the 



( n ) 

Amevican Government had knowledge of the fact; 
that Mr. Erskine had not authority to conclude the ar- 
rangement made by him in behalf of his government, 
after such knowledge had been explicitly disavowed 
by the American Executive. It is not pretended that 
this is expressly asserted by the British Minister to be 
a fact. Your Committee are unable to discern either 
the assertion or the insinuation of this as fact ; nor can 
they perceive in any part of the correspondence of the 
British Minister expressions of disrespect or distrust 
towards the government, much less the offensive im- 
putation of falsehood. They profess not to determine 
whether the style of the American Secretary, or that 
of the British Minister was most conciliatory and con- 
formable to diplomatic usage. But they are utterly at 
a loss to discover either open or covert insult, or any 
insinuations, which, according to the arbitrary rules 
of honour, would justify the abrupt termination of a 
conference between high-minded individuals, desirous 
of amicably adjusting a private controversy. This 
conclusion, resulting from a careful examination of 
the public documents, becomes irresistible in the minds 
of your Committee, from the consideration that the 
imputed offence not only is not specified with preci- 
sion by the American Secretaiy, but is, among the ad- 
vocates of administration, both in and out of Congress, 
assigned to different letters; to different expressions 
in the same letter ; and to the entire correspondence 
on the part of the British Minister, agreeably to their 
own discordant constructions, and to the glosses and 
comments suggested by their various imaginations and 
modes of reasoning. If, however, the British Minis- 
ter had, either through accident or design, permitted 
himself to use equivocal expressions which, in or- 



( 15 ) 

dinary times, might justify his repulse by a proud 
Monarch, prepared for open hostilities, and glad of a 
pretext for war and conquest ; yet, at this era of po- 
litical convulsion, when the tempest of war has swept 
every republic but ours from its base ; and when ques* 
tions of diplomatic ceremony and usage, even at 
the most jealous courts, are forgotten amid the more 
weighty questions of national safety and existence — it 
is not conceived that the national honour of our remote 
and pacific Republic would, for the use of such doubt- 
ful words, without even demanding an explanation, 
require the dismissal of an Ambassador of Peace from 
one of the belligerent powers, especially when the 
policy of the administration had dictated so long and 
patient a forbearance under gross and continued out- 
rages from the other. 

This act of the government, so inauspicious to the 
future peace of the country, assumes a more alarming 
aspect, when viewed in connection with preceding cir- 
cumstances and transactions. The failure, on points 
doubtful or unimportant, of the mission of Mr. Rose, 
who was specially empowered to make honourable re- 
paration for the unauthorized aggression of an indivi- 
dual ; the ungracious terms in which the satisfaction 
subsequently offered by Mr. Erskine was accepted; na- 
turally tend to excite fears in regard to the ultimate 
views of the administration, and to discourage all fur- 
ther attempts at amicable negociation. Nor are our 
anxieties on this subject diminished by a consideration 
of the temper and conduct of the government in rela- 
tion to the other belligerent. Of the chai^acter of tlie 
correspondence with France by our resident Minister, 
or thenuture of our negociations with that power, we 
can form but an imperfect opinion, in consequence of 



( 13 ) 

'the mutilated state in which it has been presented for 
public inspection ; but from such small portions of it as 
have been published or revealed, from the insolent 
and dictatorial letters of the French Minister, pub- 
lished in the face of all Eurofie, and the indifference 
or patience with which they have been received ; and 
from the approbation expressed by France of our late 
restrictive measures, we are compelled to fear, that 
neither the honour nor interest of the country have 
been guarded or maintained with the spirit and dignity 
becoming an independent nation. 

The importance of these repulsive measures is in- 
creased by the deplorable state of the public treasury. 
From the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, it 
is apparent that the net revenue of the United States 
during the year 1807, was sixteen millions fifty-nine 
dollars — That during the year 1808, under the first 
operation of the embargo, the same revenue was only 
ten millions thee hundred and thirty-two dollars — 
That during the year 1809, under the further opera- 
tion of the same system , it was reduced to six millions 
and an half dollars — So that the difference of the. 
amount of revenue between the years 1807 and 1809 
is nine millions and an half of dollars. It is also stated, 
in the last report from that department, that the ex- 
penses of the government for the last year, exclusive 
of payments on account of the principal of the public 
debt, have exceeded the actual receipts into the Trea- 
sury nearly thirteen hundred thousand dollars, which 
deficiency has been paid out of the surplus of preced- 
ing years. It is further stated, that the expense of 
government upon a fieace establishment for the year 
181 1, win be about ten millions of dollars, and eight 
millions after that year — and that a loan of four mil- 
B 



{ M ) 

lions has already become necessarjr. In the report oi 
the same department, for the year 1806, it was stated, 
that after defraying all the expenses of government, 
an annual surplus of five and an half millions of dol- 
lars would remain. But according to the last state- 
ment, there will be a deficiency for the present year 
of four millions, making against the United States an 
annual difference as before of nine millions and an 
half. But when, with these statements, are taken 4nto 
view, the still progressive diminution and propable 
annihilation of revenue from • commerce in the event 
of war, and the additional and incalculable expenses 
which must be rendered necessary in its prosecution, 
your Committee can perceive no means of supplying 
this miserable deficiency of revenue but from direct 
taxes. The expedient of great and enormous loans 
might be a resource for the first exigencies of the 
war; but a nation entirely deprived of visible and ac- 
tual revenue, could support but a doubtful credit, and 
the contemplation of a debt constantly augmenting in 
an unjust and ruinous contest, would disgust the pa- 
triot, and terrify the contractor. In these circumstan- 
ces it is but too obvious that the only remaining re- 
sources of this government would be either forced con- 
1 ributions, or oppressive taxes upon the yeomanry. 

While such have been the pernicious effects of the 
measures of the administration upon ourselves, your 
Committee would willingly spare themselves the hu- 
miliating confession that by the belligerent nations 
they are regarded as partial and harmless. So far have 
they been from disposmg France to any relaxation of 
the imperial decrees, that they have been the subject 
of praise and approbation with her Emperor, whose 
onlv dissatisfaction has been maiiifested at their tern- 



( i3') 

porary suspension. By Great-Britain they have beeu 
regarded with indifference, though in their opera- 
tion they have secured to her the carriage of our 
produce, and the monopoly of the commerce of the 
world. Her manufactures have not decreased, nor 
has her revenue or power been in any visible degree 
impaired. While an intercourse with the United States 
has ever been deemed by that nation of secondary im- 
portance, in comparison with the great objects for 
which she is contending, its advantages have never 
been disregarded or undervalued by her Statesmen. 
It remained for our infatuated counsels to reveal the 
fatal secret, that the commerce of these States was 
of less importance to her prosperity and greatness than 
her own politicians had predicted. That our countiy has 
sustained injuries from the operation of the British or- 
ders, and suffered from the outrages of her officers, 
for which it is entitled to satisfaction, is not to be 
denied. It ought not, hov/ever, to be forgotten, that 
during the entire period of these commercial restric- 
tions. Finance, with whose consent they were imposed 
and continued, has seized and sequestered nearly all 
the American property which has fallen within her 
grasp, while Britain, against whom alone they could 
be expected to operate, has respected our flag, con- 
voyed our ships, and admitted us to a free and lucra- 
tive commerce with every part of her dominions. 

With this view of an empty treasury and abandoned 
commerce, it is impossible to overlook the defenceless 
state of the country, and especially of the entire sea- 
board of the United States. While the American flag 
would be driven from the ocean, our sea-ports would 
be at the mercy of the most formidable navy that ever 
existed, and before our fortifications or armies could 



( 16 ) 

be in a situation to sustain the first assaults of the 
enemy, our cities might be buried in ruins, and our 
sea-coast exposed to inconceivable distress. 

As the miseries of such a war would be incurred 
without adequate motive, they must be sustained with- 
out a possible chance of indemnity. On the ocean 
Britain is at present invulnerable. It is only upon the 
side of Canada that the American arms could come into 
actual collision with her dominions, and if the chances 
of war, after a profusion of blood and treasure, should 
enable the United States to add to their territory, al- 
ready too extensive, this province of Frenchmen, what 
would be the value of the acquisition ? And for whom 
would it be acquired ? To hold it as a colony would be 
inconsistent with the genius of our institutions. To 
adopt it as a free and independent State would be 
equally repugnant to the habits and wishes of tliat 
people. Under what pretext could we retain tliis an- 
cient and favourite appendage of France-^ claiming it 
as her legitimate estate, with the voices of a great ma- 
jority of its inhabitants to second her pretensions? 
It is morally certain, that Canada^ conquered by the 
United States, would, under the patronage of France^ 
become a northern hive, pouring forth successive 
swarms of Goths and Vandals, which, in alliance with 
savage tribes, would encompass the Union with a belt 
—a favourite project of the ancient Monarchy, which 
probably has never been relinquished. 

Your Committee, however, do not disguise their be- 
lief, that neither an exhausted treasurj', nor a ruined 
commerce, nor a depopulated sea-coast, nor the mise- 
ries of a war without a possibility of success or defi- 
nition of object, would constitute the principal disas- 
ters of a rupture with Great-Britain. The spirit and 



( ir ) 

resources of the country, when roused and collected, 
are, under the blessing of Providence, sufficient far 
its defence, and would, in time, be applied to this ob- 
ject. But the consummation of the public calamities 
would be found in an alliance with that desolating and 
gigantic despotism, which has crushed the govern- 
ments and subverted the liberties of Euro/ie, and 
whose genius is not more hostile to every republican 
institution than to the spirit of commerce, by which 
such institutions are cherished and preserved. No^ 
thing but a mysterious infatuation can induce an ad- 
ministration to seek an alliance with a government, 
whose hostility to the United States has been mani- 
fested, not merely in misconstructions of doubtful 
points of national law, and in the unguarded expres- 
sions of its Public IVIinisters, but in an open violation 
of treaties, and contempt of neutral rights^ not merely 
in illegal captures and casual injuries, for which re- 
paration has been offered, but in an unvaried series of 
insults and aggressions, of sequestrations of property 
upon land, and of plunder and burning of our ships 
upon the' ocean ; not merely in the impressment of 
seamen claimed as her own subjects, but in the cap- 
tivity and confinement in dungeons of our acknow- 
ledged citizens, without colour of pretence. The ca- 
lamities of such a war would be indeed aggravated by 
the dangers and infamy of such an alliance ; and our 
success, if success could reasonably be expectectj 
would hasten t\te period in which we should find our- 
selves compelled, without any intervening barrier, to 
grc.pple on our own soil with an enemy who has long 
made war upon us in every possible form but that oi' 
actual invasion, and who reserves his most fuitlif'/l 
allies for his most exempUry victims. 
B 2 



( 18 ) 

In conclusion, your Committee are persuaded, that 
no honourcible means should be left unattemptcd to 
institute and pursue a negociation with Great- BritaiJi 
for the accommodation of differences, and that the 
v/hole system of commercial restrictions should be 
abandoned, before the natural sources of our revenue 
are entirely exhausted, and the course of trade so di- 
verted by new habits, and so concealed by evasions, 
as to produce permanent and irretrievable ruin. And 
they accordingly recommend the following resolu- 
tions : 

Whereas Francis James Jackson, Minister Pleni- 
potentiary from the Couitof Great-Britain^ having full 
powers to negociate and conclude a treaty for the ami- 
cable adjustment of the controversies unhappily sub- 
sisting between the United States and that nation, after 
being duly accredited by the Executive of the United 
States, has been suspended from the exercise of his 
functions, for some expressions contained in his corres- 
pondence with the government of the United States, 
which are alleged to be derogatory to the honour and 
veracity of the Executive Government ; «nd the Legis- 
latures of some of our sister States having declared 
their assent to the construction given to the said cor- 
respondence, and their approbation of the dismissal of 
the stiid British Minister ; and the Legislature oi Massa- 
chusetts, having examined the said correspondence, and 
being unable to discern in it any passages or words 
which, in their judgment, can be fidrly construed to 
convey disrespectful and offensive imputations: — And 
whereas the doings of the said LegisLdures, combined 
with the resolutions of Congress, have <i tendency to 
widen the breach ahead) existing, und to remove sail 
farther the prospect of accommodation: — And whereas 



( 19 ) 

this Legislature, while they are always ready, at what- 
ever hazard, to emburk in u just and necessary war, and 
to support the National Government with the whole 
force and resources of the State, are nevertheless per- 
suaded that no just cause exists for a rupture with 
Great- Britain^ and that its effects, detrimental to both 
nations, would tend to the impoverishment of this Com- 
monwealth, to the destruction of its commerce, and to 
the aggrandizement of a power already formidable to 
the liberties of mankind : — And whereas we deem it a 
duty to use all the means in our power to allay the ex- 
isting irritations, and prepare the way for the restoration 
of a friendly intercourse between two nations whose in- 
terests are in many points essentially united : 

Therefore Resolved, 

That the Legislature of Massachusetts is affected 
with sincere and profound regret at the late unexpected 
and sudden termination of the correspondence between 
the American Secretary of State and Francis James . 
Jackson, his Britannic Majesty's Minister, for which 
they can perceive no just or adequate cause. 

Resolved, That it is our anxious wish that some 
means may be devised, consistent with the honour of 
the United States, to resume the negociations between 
tlie two countries ; for obtcdning reparation of real inju- 
ries ; and to establish peace and amity, so essential to 
the interest and happiness of both, upon a permanent 
basis. 

Resolved, That acts of embargoes and non-inter- 
course, and the wl.oie system of conniiercial restramts, 
adopted and contemplate a oy the late and present ad- 
ministration, aic iiiipcdinients to a restoration of our 
amicable relations with Great-Hritainysma have proved 



( 20 ) 

in the highest degree pernicious to the best interests of 
this country, and especially of this commercial State — 
That all the predictions of their opponents have been 
verified — That by the operation of these acts, the pub^ 
lie Treasury has been drained, and brought to the verge 
of bankruptcy — That the commerce of the country has 
been palsied, and in a great measure irrecoverably de- 
stroyed — That the whole of this impotent system has be- 
come a subject of derision w^ith those it was intended 
to coerce, and that its mischiefs have recoiled upon our 
own country. 

Resolved^ That the temporary suspension of these 
acts afforded demonstration of the means of the United 
States to pursue a highly lucrative commerce, even un- 
der existing embarrassments, and an opportunity, which 
was gladly embraced, by our mercantile citizens — 
That during this interval all our shipping was employ- 
ed, and that our navigation experienced civility and pro- 
tection from the British cruizers, whilst it has been 
constantly annoyed by the depredations of France and 
her allies. 

Resolved^ That all measures calculated to produce 
unnecessary hostility with Great-Bi-itain, at all times 
impolitic and contrary to the true interests of this na- 
tion, are at the present crisis peculiarly unfortunate, 
and ought to be discountenanced by all constitutional 
means'— That our country is defenceless and our trea- 
sury exhausted ; that to fortify one and replenish the 
other, will require lime, economy and the advantages 
of renewed commerce — That, on the contrary. Great- 
Britain is inaccessible and invulnerable, except in one 
of its provinces, tiic conquest of whicii, if it couia be 
eff* ^red, would prove a curse and a scourge to our- 
selves and our posterity. 



( 21 ) 

Resolved^ That a war with Great-Britain would ine- 
vitably lead to an alliance with France, and thus furnish 
to her ambition the means and the pretexts for organiz- 
ing within the United States the materials and instru- 
ments for schemes of future domination. These mate- 
rials unhappily abound on the northern frontier, and in 
our newly acquired territories in the South. From 
such a contest, the United States, if unsuccessful, would 
be compelled to retire with a disgraceful surrender of 
the objects of the war; or, if successful, by contributing 
to the downfal of Britain, would be left alone to en- 
counter a power, who, unopposed by the navy of his pre- 
sent enemy, would call into requisition all the resources 
and energies of our solitary Republic, to defend, in 
doubtful conflict, our liberties upon our own shores. 



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